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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
QOTD
Since it seems that Casey Anthony was found not guilty because the death penalty seemed so severe, did it change your opinion of the death penalty if you were a believer in it?
I'm torn on this one because I am not 100% towards the death penalty. I think people should be sent to prison for life and have to think about everyday of their life what they have done to someone. But other times I feel that if you took a life, you shouldn't have life either. As a juror though, I don't know if I could be ok with giving someone a sentence of death. So I think I'm going to go towards that I'm not a fan of the death penalty anymore.
Re: QOTD
I have never been a big proponent of the death penalty. I actually did a research paper on this back in HS. There are too many people on death row that I'm not 100% sure are guilty of the crime they committed. It also takes much more money to have someone sentenced to death (appeals are most of it, and the actual act is expensive as well). There are a few times where I would be ok with the death penalty (but I need to be 100% sure they are guilty and it has to be for more than one crime - multiple deaths would count for that even if from the same act), but for the most part, I would rather see someone sentenced to life without parol and lock them away and let them rot (If only we really could just put them all on a deserted island never to be seen again).
I do think that our prison system and the juvile justice system needs a major overhaul, but thats not the issue being discussed today.
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Well... as I understand it, the jury was not required to give her the death penalty, and could have given her life in prison. After a "guilty" verdict, there would have been an entire other phase to determine if capital punishment or a lesser sentence was to be applied.
Further, as the death penalty in Florida itself is in the courts, and could potentially be eliminated from the Florida system, if that did happen, and she had been sentenced to the death penalty, she would have been entitled to an entirely new trial.
All that, said, I have never been a proponent of the death penalty, for the following reasons:
1) I do not believe that I have any more of a right to end someone's life than that person did in the first place.
2) Statistics show that the death penalty has strong racial bias against blacks, that blacks are issued the death penalty much more prevalently than eligible whites (google death penalty racial bias philadelphia for more information). We are still a society that has enough of an anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-everyonewhodoesn'tlooklikeme society that I don't believe it can be applied in a manner that is fair across the country. This racial bias applies to both the "black people scare me" notion and "when a white person is killed, the death penalty should apply, but when a black person is killed, the crime is not important enough". deathpenaltyinfo.org is a good source for some interesting statistics on some of these items.
And, as a reminder, I'm not a lawyer, and know what i know about the death penalty mainly from the back of sugar packets.
Do I love that not giving the death penalty and giving a life sentence means that we are paying for someone's life and potentially infinite appeals while in prison? No. But that's the society we have.
Kathy it is entirely true about death penalty cases being racially bias. I read a lot of that when I did my research back in HS. Case after case of it. Most of the time it happens because the defendant is given a court appointed lawyer (and not to say they are bad) whom have other cases, some that they may be getting paid more to work on and would put less effort into the trial. Unfortunately it does sometimes come down to what lawyer you can afford.
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I agree, and that's why I am 100% against it. The West Memphis 3 is an example. One of the men has been on death row for years, and there is no evidence that he took part in killing a child. Why is he still on death row? They are finally allowing DNA testing. Why has this man been on death row without any DNA testing? Ok, enough about my rant.
I've never been a huge supporter of the death penalty myself but dammmmn I really hate the idea of the dollars spent housing murderers. I can't say that if something horrible was done to a loved one of mine that I wouldn't become a supporter. Being a juror can not be easy though and I am not sure I myself would be able to send someone to that fate either.
Hmmm can you say wishy-washy? LOL
Interesting, I did not know this.
Well, I'm probably going to be a minority here...
I am for the death penalty when the circumstances are right. Casey Anthony's case is not one of those times. Yes, there's a lot she did wrong... but not enough to be sentenced to death, or even life in prison. That's just my opinion. And if the circumstances are right to me, if I was a juror I would have no problem handing it out.
That being said, I am also the kind of person where if someone were to break into my house, they would be met with my shotgun in their face, they would get told once to getthef*ckout, and if they didn't turn around immediately I would shoot them. No second thoughts. I am very pro my life, and I will take my life, my families, and my pets into my own hands, when it comes down to it, instead of hiding all of us in a closet and hoping for the best.
And I'm typically more liberal than republican, but this post shows the opposite of that, haha.
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Here are a couple examples:
I think the 2 men that broke into the Pettite (sp>) home and brutally raped, tortured, and killed the girls here in CT should be sentenced to death.
If Casey Anthony was found guilty I don't think there was enough evidence to prove she is 100% guilty. I would say in her case life in prison since there is/was not the 100% (or close to) evidence.
I just hate that our tax money goes to pay for appeal after appeal for people who did commit the crimes. I also hate that we pay for inmates to get excellent healthcare, food, cable tv, access to a good education at no cost to them.
I totally agree. At the point that you've put my family in harm's way, I will defend them with everything I have. If that means deadly force, then that means deadly force. When it comes to the judicial system, I do think that there are times when the death penalty is justified- having said that I think those times are people like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer. The case at hand has to be extreme enough itself to warrant such an extreme punishment.
I don't think that Casey Anthony deserved the death penalty. I do think that she should have been found guilty, but rather than blamethe jury, I blame the prosecution. I don't think they did their job.
I think it's up to all of us now to make sure that she doesn't profit from her actions (or alleged actions if you want to be legal). No book buying, no movie watching, no watching of her or her defense team in interviews. It feels like withholding the almighty dollar may be the only course of action we have at this point. Sometimes I do think "yay capitalism." if it provides some small amount of justice this could be one of those times.
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I'm pretty wishy washy on the death penalty. This case didn't really do anything to change it either way so I don't have anything really valuable to add to this conversation.
I need to say I'm annoyed by the juror I heard said they didn't feel it was their place to judge someone else. Ok, really? Newsflash, when you're made a juror, it IS your job to judge someone else, that's kinda how it works.
Like I said on FB, I didn't follow really even a minute of this case, or any other cases really, so I can't say anything about who did a good enough job, etc. but I do agree that if there's any doubt she's not guilty of murder than death isn't the way to go but I think that she's guilty of lots of things so there should be something pretty extreme (life).
And yes, if someone is in my home/space trying to harm me and my baby and I have the means to kill them, you better believe I'm going to try.
AND, I just need to say, it makes me so sad that there are probably hundreds, if not more, children who are killed, some by their parents, every day and they don't get all this attention or even caught. It makes me so sad to think of what Caylee and other little kids are thinking when this is happening to them.
AAAAND, I was annoyed by a FB prayer my aunt posted that said something to the affect of "from this day forward little Caylee is protected by God". Um, she was with him and had his love long before today - this verdict did nothing to change that her life ended a while ago.
AAAAND, finally, my husband, the Florida State fan said, this is what happens when a University of Florida attorney goes up against a FSU attorney. Inappropriately funny.
this. they didn't have to give her the death penalty, they could have given her life in prison.
one part of me thinks someone should be killed the same way they killed someone else and the other part of me thinks they shouldn't be so lucky to not have to suffer with the guilt they one day 'hopefully' feel. maybe solitary forever? i hear that's pretty brutal. all the people who end up in solitary say they wish they could have died. so maybe that? i don't know.
in the case of this horrific incident i think that she should suffer the same way she murdered her baby girl.
Zoey Emma 08.18.10